


I'll Be Waiting... (just for you)

by dreadwolfcullen



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Elven Glory, Eventual Fluff, F/M, M/M, My First Dragon Age Fic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Solavellan Hell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:35:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22551868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreadwolfcullen/pseuds/dreadwolfcullen
Summary: Adahlena Sahren Lavellan. A Dalish elf from the Free Marches, daughter of the forest, one who is destined to command respect, by the meanings of her names.A plain woman, dedicated to Andruil. Simple things bring her joy, but eventually she is drawn into a complex, convoluted thing. A mark on her hand, a Breach in the sky. How can she be the Herald of Andraste?
Relationships: Fen'Harel | Solas/Female Lavellan, Fenris/Male Hawke, Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus
Kudos: 4





	1. There You Stood

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic please be gentle! I'll try to update at least once daily, but I'm sorry if I forget.
> 
> Piper

Adahlena Sahren Lavellan stood on the snowy path looking around as this woman, Cassandra, told her of the others fighting ahead. Others? What others? She knew no one in this place. The weight of that loneliness and separation settled on her as her body automatically performed the task of stringing, shooting, evading. The light on the snowy mountain glinted off the shapes of the people and…creatures ahead. Demons? Were they demons? Andruil’s fiery arrows, what did she walk into? 

The things finally dead, their fluids splashed on her face and the disgusting olive drab…thing she’d been put in, she spared a look at those around her. A stocky dwarf with an ungodly amount of chest hair displayed and a cocky smile, and…as her eyes traveled from his wrapped feet to the tunic and leggings he wore, the staff, the bald head…beautiful hazel eyes. Eyes she found she could not gaze away from. Straight brows, a small, cold but cordial smile, and…a bare face. No vallaslin. Shreds of doubt came to her mind. The very picture of a respectable elder, yet…no vallaslin. 

In the brief seconds this contemplation had taken, the elf had taken her hand (coolness and warmth and the smoothness of skin and a spark…the tiniest spark.) and shoved their intertwined hands up into the rift. Pain bloomed and she screamed through it, then, the last push. Edges sewing themselves together and the green, sickly light disappeared. She looked confusedly around and—

Astounded, Adahlena looks with widened eyes at the elf. 

“What did you do?” she spoke in a panic filled voice.

The …gentle? Why gentle? How would Adah know he was gentle?... elf smiled in his not really a smile way and spoke, his voice precise but beautiful, like a deep ocean rolling through her ears. 

“I did nothing. The credit is yours.”  
Somehow she presented at the praise. She’s known this man two minutes and she’s already   
infatuated! What is wrong with her…

“At least this is good for something,” she spoke with a relieved smile.   
He nodded and went on. 

“Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake – and it seems I was correct.” Huh. Well that was quite a lot of magey words she didn’t understand.

“Meaning it could possibly close the breach?” Cassandra asked. 

“Possibly. It seems you hold the key to our salvation.” the elf nodded to Adah. 

“Good to know. I thought we’d be ass deep in demons already! 

Adahlena rolled her eyes and laughed. ‘This one is gonna be fun' she thought.


	2. Amazing, Shining for the Whole World to See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The introductions! 
> 
> I set out writing this morning intending to keep this canon and only canon but Varric ran away with the script and wouldn't give it back until he had a better introduction. Solas insisted too. *disgusted noise*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy! Sorry this chapter seems to be smaller. I stop when I feel like a good end approaches. Nothing is written ahead, so i spent the last hour writing this feckin thing.

The hairy chested dwarf approached her, all smiles and casual geniality.   
“Varric Tethras. Rogue, storyteller, and occasional unwelcome tag along.” 

With those words uttered, the confident dwarf shoots a wink and smirk to Cassandra. Nearly in unison the two ladies in the group give derisive snorts of disgust and then look at each other with a grin.

“Glad to see I’ve presented a bonding moment between you two. Watch out though, she does occasionally bite.”

“Only when I’m forced to, Varric,” the seeker says with utter disdain, her dark walnut eyes, threaded with an almost silvery hazel, rolling.

“Oh, I’m scared, Seeker. Remember, you need me.”

The elf, standing quietly through this interaction, smiles as if this is a common thing, and looks to her. “My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions. And you are?” 

One straight brow quirks in query, the edge of the full lips lifting in a gentle smirk. Ghila’nain's golden halla, she’s in trouble with this one.

“Adahlena Sahlen Lavellan. How…did I do that?” she asks, almost completely confused as her dark grey eyes widen and her nose wrinkles.  
The mage, not unkindly, offers answer.

“Essentially, the mark on your hand knit the Fade around that rift back together and closed it, as though closing a hole in a shirt.”

“Huh. I see. Not that that actually answers any questions, but I…think I get it?”

Varric chuckled. “Leave the poor girl alone, Chuckles. She looks as skittish as a halla.”

Appraising the dwarf again, she notices the contraption on his back. “Is that a repeating crossbow? How fast does that thing go?”

“My Bianca is not a ‘thing', thank you. And her gifts are secrets known only to me.”

“You…named your crossbow?” she asked, acting extra incredulous so nobody would suspect that back home she’d named her longbow Banal'ras'iroth, swift shadow.

“What’s wrong with naming one’s weapons? Bianca has been good to me, and I choose to believe it’s because she has a name.” 

“…huh.” She answers, quietly contemplating. “That would explain why my longbow back home works so well for me. His name is Banal'ras'iroth.”

“One who is a swift shadow. That is a lovely name for a bow.” The mage's quiet, precise voice spoke.

“Wait, I thought I was the only one who named weapons! Welp, there goes my quirk. Now I’m not a dashing hero anymore!”

“No one ever said you were, Varric. Come on. We’re wasting time. We need to get to the forward camp.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are appreciated! Feedback is the best thing ever. I offer hot cocoa and cookies in return.


	3. And I Knew an Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback time! It was supposed to be a quick "you're going to the conclave, hehe, haha, hoho!" type thing but my imagination ran wild! Flashback will continue tomorrow as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this!

As they walked, she and Solas in back, Varric in the front, Cassandra next to Varric, the elven mage spoke quietly to her. 

“I am glad to see you still live.”  
“He means he kept that mark from killing you while you slept,” Varric calls back to them, and Adah lightly laughs. 

“Then I am indebted to you. Ma sarennas.”

“You owe me nothing that simple conversation will not repay,” the elder spoke softly. “You are Dalish, but clearly away from your clan. Did they send you here?”

Adah’s eyes closed briefly ad she remembered the few months leading up to the Conclave.

~~~~~~

In the wilds near Ostwick, a cluster of aravels sat beneath the starry night sky. The blonde head of Adahlena bowed near the fire, cleaning the skin of a bear she’d hunted earlier that afternoon. The camp was quiet, with the gentle noises of families putting their children to bed, the halla-keeper quietly speaking to his charges, the guards patrolling the outskirts of the camp. 

“Adah! It’s late, da’len. You can finish your work tomorrow!” the voice of her mother broke the evening hush.

“Mamae, if I do not finish now, I may never finish.” The younger blonde replied, scraping the pelt.

“Da’len…” came the deep voice of her father. “Go to sleep. You’re disturbing the camp’s rest. We have many miles to cover tomorrow.”

Adah made a disgusted noise and rolled her eyes. “Fine.” 

Rolling the pelt up with her tools inside, she packed it into the back of the aravel on the outside. Easy access for tomorrow. She released the pins holding her hair up and was about to head to bed when a figure walked between the trees. For a moment, Adah was suspicious, but as the figure stepped into the firelight, she smiled in relief to see Keeper Deshanna. 

The older elf smiled in return, the edges of her eyes crinkling and the corners of her lips lifting in a gentle smile. Adah could not lie, she’d hoped to be a mage so that she and Deshanna could spend more time together. They had developed a very strong, almost familial relationship over Adah’s twenty years of life. 

“Andaran atishan, Keeper,” Adah spoke the traditional greeting reverently.

“En’an’sal’en sul mar arla, da’len. I do not mean to interrupt your departure to bed. I simply wanted to let you know that I, and the rest of the Council, wish to speak with you on the morrow. Early.”

Adah’s face paled and the deep green vallaslin of Andruil stood out more.  
“Ghila’nain’s golden halla, am I in trouble?” 

The keeper laughed, both at the inventive curse and the genuine discomfort and worry in her favored hunter’s eyes. 

“No, child. It may prove that you have a special use to the Creators, and our clan. That is all I will say on the matter. When you wake on the morn, wash yourself with the purification rites and come to the Council tent as soon as you have finished. On nydha, da’len.” 

The Keeper walked back to her aravel, her robes swishing quietly upon the ground. The camp had fallen completely silent under its blanket of starry night. The moonlight graced the tops of the aravels with a gentle silverite glow as Adah confusedly returned to her sleeping place and dreamt garbled dreams of big meetings and mighty quests of utmost importance to the world. In them figured a bald elf, humble and barefoot, but regal and beautiful nonetheless.

The camp woke early the next morning, as usual. Sounds of children playing, pots and pans clanging as the morning meal was made, halla calling. Dawn pooled in, lapping like water against the aravels, halls and people moving around the waking encampment.

Adahlena woke as the misty light of morning slipped through her window like fingers, gently tickling her awake. A stretch, then she began her morning routine. Skipping a few steps as she had no time, she left her blonde, wavy hair undone and falling down from her scalp like a waterfall of sunlight. Quickly, she slipped into her more ceremonial robes, a dark green which would complement her skin and ryes. Long, they trailed the floor and, to Adah, looked far too fancy to fit into her every day life with her clan. Fully ready, her bare feet padded like the paws of a wolf through the camp to the Council tent, attracting barely any notice, or so she thought. 

A brown haired man, skin bronzed and glazed like a donut from hard work, watched the beautiful Adah covetously. Long he had loved her, long been ignored, until the spring solstice of her twentieth year. She had jumped the fires with him, slept in the bales of hay with him. Now she was his. But she paid not a whit of attention to him. He scowled and walked over to her.

“Lovely Adahlena, what brings you along my path this morning? And with such glowing beauty! I have been graced by Sylaise herself."

“Good morrow, Nehnsuledin.” Her smile lit up her face as she hugged him, gently pecking him on the cheek. “Long have I waited to see you, for I missed our frolic in the hay on Solstice. But I have been kept busy by my familial duties, as I am now. Can you forgive me?” 

Nehn’s eyes widened and he grinned wider than the river in their winter camping spot. “Then you still share my feelings? Oh, Adah, of course I forgive you. I shall ask your father today if I may have your hand.” And with that, he kissed her brazenly, as their faces both glowed with crimson and the sweet blush of young love.

“Please, Nehn, please do…you are my enduring joy and I cannot see my life without you.”

The young elf, nodding and bubbling with happiness, ran to ask her father for her hand, as Adah walked as though on air to the council tent. How could she be so lucky!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos appreciated.


	4. Had Been Sent to Watch Over Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continued flashback, and the reason for Adahlena being sent to the conclave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I missed yesterday! Just a lot of IRL stuff. It's a small chapter. I'll try to make a longer chapter next time.

As she walked the rest of the distance to the council tent, her platinum blonde hair waving in the morning breeze, she contemplated what Keeper Deshanna and the Council might want. A promotion? Some kind of mission? Her gray eyes narrowed as she thought, her head tipped slightly to the side as her thoughts were almost entirely occupied elsewhere. The council tent appeared in the early morning mist between the trees and she slipped in.  
The entire council was gathered, all eight elders and Deshanna. Nods and smiles crossed those gathered here at her entrance, like a wave. She was well loved by her clan.   
Deshanna cleared her throat, intending to speak and begin this morning’s meeting.   
“Good morning, Lethallan. It is our pleasure as the council to award you a new position within the clan, to send you on a mission, and to warn you. Are you ready to hear our words?”  
Adahlena's eyes widened and flashed silver, and she shook her head. “My Keeper, I must object. I am a simple hunter. I have no experience!”  
“My child,” a new voice said, this one wavery and old. Master Calladin. The human bard had moved from the city of Denerim many moons ago, and had become clan friend by saving Keeper Deshanna from a terrible plot. He was well respected, the only human who had become clan kin in their history. She was his granddaughter.   
“My child,” he began again seeing her distraction. “You are best suited for this job as your magic has not manifested yet. We need someone to watch for us that will arouse less suspicion. You are young, we have gained contacts which will allow you to pose as a servant to one of my own relatives, your distant aunt Emmaleigh Trevelyan, at the Divine Conclave.”  
Her magic had not manifested YET? Everyone knew that magic manifested at a young age.  
“Hah’ren, not to be disrespectful but…doesn’t magic usually present at a young age?”   
“Usually, yes. However, within my family, we can and have presented magic into our teens and late twenties. So, you are not abnormal.”  
She could still have magic? The idea of it shook her to her core. She closed her eyes and shook her head to clear it.   
“Wait, the Divine Conclave? Why am I being sent there?”  
Deshanna answered this time.   
“We need someone to watch this potentially world altering event and bring information back on what the shemlens plan. It is best that you do it because you have not been seen before. I do not want to send one of our agents that is known to the conclave, in case of problems. It is important, da’len. Please.”  
She sighs. Why her…but she cannot say no to her keeper.   
“ …yes, hah’ren.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy! Comments and kudos appreciated. I'll bake you frilly cakes in return.


End file.
